Small Craft Advisory

It was only after reading Nicholas Shakespeare's biography of Bruce Chatwin that I understood why I appreciated his first book In Patagonia (1977) more than his other books combined: his editor, Susannah Clapp, went through it with him "line by line."

The relationship between writer and editor reared its beautiful head recently in an interview between David Ly and Jen Sookfong Lee in The /tEmz/Review. Ly asked: "What was the most difficult obstacle that you didn't expect, but overcame, while creating your first book of poetry?" To which Lee replied:

"Honestly, and I will sound like a dingus, but line breaks almost killed me. I am terrible at line breaks and organization in poetry in general. The irony is that when I write or edit fiction, I am a master at structure! But put a poem in front of me and ask me to restructure it, and I swear my brain turns to glue. If it weren't for Paul Vermeersch [the book's editor] gently guiding me along, and showing me what was possible, my poems would all exist as word-filled blobs."

The grab atop this post came from a writer whose first book Heart Berries: a Memoir (2016) I admire very much and am always giving as gifts, a writer whose first published works (that eventually became Heart Berries) first appeared as Fiction (recall the inverse: how James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, 2003, was published first as memoir, until Frey was outed -- for "lying").

My first response to Terese Marie Mailhot's fatigue with "prioritizing craft over humanity" is propositional and therefore closer to "craft": the false dichotomy that has "craft" and "humanity" at odds with each other. The replies to Mailhot's post are overwhelmingly supportive, with an emphasis on "the truth". But if "craft" is seen as interfering with the truth, as opposed to focusing it, or withholding it until it can be more effectively deployed, then what of Art?

It is the structure of James Frey's "lie" that held together the truth of mental illness, addiction and trauma -- those "million little pieces" that can overwhelm us, send us screaming naked through the streets and, as a result, to the psyche ward, if not prison. Stew is fine on certain days, but sometimes I want my meat, potatoes and vegetables cooked separately and plated in a way that allows me to appreciate them on their own, as well as in relation. If we are to have choices, we need options. That's what I learned in school, and why I will always encourage people to read -- and write -- widely.